Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-02-11
WALKERS VENGEANCE.

N4OunHiu ptople nedIu inc Story VI prun
walker. That was during the ~fiercest
part of Nj civil war, and minor Incl
dents were speedily absorbed and forgot
tn. l doubt II there are q score OF peo-
PIE living to-day who n recall the de-
tnih of this angular mans adventures,
md ! do not remember that anything
ave q brief outline Of the massacre Of
tis family has ever appeared in print.
was q pony express rider on the
Overland route. That meant helping to
% guard stages, carrying a light mail on
ny saddle, forwarding dispatches, taking
my turn 70 act Is agent Of some stable
and various other things which need not
b explained. There were then several
GJzat trails leading west from the borders
q civilization, and all were more or less
travelled, but the favorite routes were
from st. Joseph and Council Bluffs, the
enc being known rs the northern and the
Oeher Is the southern route. l was on a
route along the Platte river, west Of
Fort Kearney, which was sometimes
fifty miles long and sometimes les, &C.
oording 10 the way the Indians were be-
having and the number Of men we had
I'm service.
Grim Walker was o pioneer named
Charles o. Walker, from rear Iowa
City. He was q giant in size, naturally
our and taciturn Of disposition. and his
family consisted Of q wife and three
children. While the country was ex-
God over the civil war. and travel by
he overland had almost come to a stop
s1cept in cases Of necessity, Walker and
others formed an immigrant party to
make a push for the golden land. When
I fnt heard OF them they numbered
twenty wagons and sixty or seventy
people, and were on the Platte. east Of
Ksarney, which was then dangerous
Round. When the outfit reached Kear-
ney some were for turning back. Others
1x electing a new captain, others for set
cling down neal by and establishing
ranches. II seemed that there were
three or four different factions in the
party, and several bitter quarrels had
resulted. In the then state of affairs 200
brave and united men could have scarce
n hoped TO reach the Colorado or Wyo-
ming Rne, for the Indians were up in
arms on every trail and thirsting for
blood and scalps. When il was known,
therefore, that Grim Walker, as he had
come to be known, had been elected
captain Of a faction and intended to push
On at the head Of only seven families,
which could muster but nine fighting
men, soldiers, hunters, Indian fighters
and overland men argued and scolded
and predicted. Not an argument could
move Grim Walker. Not a prediction
could brighten n Of his adherents. It
appeared to them to be a case where
manhood and pride were at stake, and
when it was limited that the military
would restrain them they made secret
preparations and departed at night. 1t
was an awful thing for those bigoted and
determined men to drive their wives and
children, consisting of twenty-five people,
70 a horrible death, but nothing short of
. battle with the military would have
seopped them.
They left Kearney n night about 10
O'Clock, drawing away quietly and
travelling at their best speed. They could
not have gone ten miles before being dis
covered by the Indians. A party Of
twenty Of us left over the same trail a.
noon next day, and we had gone only
fifteen miles when we found evidences
that the little party, which was keeping
along the Platte, had been attacked.
This must have been about daylight.
Soon after sunrise they had been driven
20 shelter in a grove Of ~cottonwoods, bnt
before reaching it one of the men had
been killed and scalped, a wagon hal
broken down and been abandoned. and
stray bullets had killed a woman and q
child as they covered down behind the
cargo of the wagons. Al 4 O'Clock in the
afternoon We came to the grove. driving
away the last Of the savages. but we
were too late. Such a spectacle as we
there beheld was enough to sicken the
46eart Of the bravest Indian fighter. The
little party had been attacked by about
300 redskins, and the fight had lasted for
half a day. As near as VIC could figure
from blood spots on the earth fourteen In
dams had been killed. and there were
bloody trails TO show that as many more
bad been wounded. The foolhardy men had
6ted game as an offset. We made out
Chat their camp had been carried by a
charge, and that the last Of the fighting
was hand 10 hand. Five Of the women
had been carried of into horrible captiv-
fty, while all others had been butchered-
Ill ave Grim Walker. The bodies had
been cut and hacked and mutilated in a
terrible manner, but we could have
identified Walker by his size, even had
he been decapitated. The immigrants
horses had all been killed, the wagons
plundered and burned, and the savages
were bundling up some Of the plumber
when we came in sight and drove them
away. All that was left us was tile sad
work Of burying the corpses.
A month later we heard that Grim
Walker had escaped from the fight,
breaking out Of the grove and riding off
on q horse just As the conflict closed in.
Men belonging TO the Overland had met
and talked with him east Of Kearney.
He had three wounds, but seemed un-
conscious OF them a. he briefly related
The Glory of the fight, and vowed that he
would have the lives Of five Indians for
every white person who had prrished.
Nothing further was heard OF him until
June If the following year. was then
I'm government employ as ascout and dis
patch rider, and was on the Smoky Hill
fork Of the Kansas river. twenty miles
west Of Fort Mcpherson, riding with two
other scouts, when we came upon Grim
Walker. He had gone east after the
massacre, and had built for himself q
bullet prof wagon. Il was a great cage